Kathmandu, Nov 21: The Nepalese government on Tuesday announced new Constituent Assembly polls for the Nepali month of Baisakh, between mid-April and mid-May 2013, on Tuesday.
The exact date would be decided in ‘consultations with all parties', the Information Minister said.
This is the second poll announcement by the government after the term of the Constituent Assembly (CA) ended in May, without delivering a constitution. On May 27, it had announced fresh polls for November 22.
But political and constitutional hurdles have prevented elections from going ahead as scheduled.
The interim constitution, Nepal's governing document at the moment, does not envisage a second CA poll. Legal experts suggested a possible solution could emerge if President Ram Baran Yadav uses his constitutional ‘power to remove obstacles' vested in him under Article 158 to clear the way for polls.
The Council of Ministers recommended such a course of action to President Yadav, but the head of state has said he would do so only on the basis of a political consensus.
The political consensus has been elusive as the opposition parties, led by Nepali Congress (NC) and Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), termed the government's announcement ‘unilateral' and ‘unconstitutional'.
